Mitch Fatel Interview

Mitch Fatel is one of the hottest comics working today. In addition to his two CDs, Miniskirts and Muffins and Super Retardo, in Itunes Top 25 comedy album charts, he is credited with one of the best selling Comedy Central specials of all time as well , Mitch Fatel: Mitch Fatel Is Magical. Heavy.com caught up with Mitch on the road in between sets, to get a glimpse of what life is for a working comic.

Heavy.com: What feedback have you received from Comedy Central since your special, Mitch Fatel Is Magical, aired?

Mitch Fatel: The feedback has been that it is too dirty to air before midnight, which I think is shocking because South Park gets away with murder at 10pm every Wednesday night. I’m shocked that they are being such pussies about it. When they have shown it earlier, it gets great ratings, so now it’s just a point of lobbying them to play it more often earlier.

Heavy.com: It seems that, regardless of content, the reviews the special received when it premiered would be enough for them to justify the risk of playing it at least as early as South Park.

Mitch Fatel: I’m definitely proud of the reviews it received. I think what shocked Comedy Central was that the content was so sexual. I’ve always took pride in the fact that my entire act is built around a subject that many still find taboo to talk about, but talk about it in a way that wasn’t dirty. I thought that they got that, and we’re trying to lobby them into dropping that start time down to at least 11pm.

Heavy.com: What was the worst advice you were given starting out in comedy?

Mitch Fatel: The worst advice I ever got was from my roommate who told me that a real comedian doesn’t write his act, that he goes up on stage and just thinks of things that happened that were funny to him. For the longest time I followed my roommate to open mic nights. He would go up on stage and just talk about whatever happened to him that day, just shopping, whatever, and make it funny, he was really good at it. For four or five years I tried to do the same thing, I would write bits about the same stuff and I just wasn’t keeping up with him. I wasn’t the same kind of comic. One day I saw Jerry Seinfeld on TV and he was talking about how everyday he would write for one hour a day no matter what, even if it meant that he would stare at a black piece of paper for an hour a day. I started thinking, “Hmm, Jerry Seinfeld is a little more successful than my stupid roommate,” who never went anywhere by the way, and it totally changed my way of thinking about comedy.

Heavy.com: What is the worst gig you’ve ever had?

Mitch Fatel: When I first started out I was working a club in Yonkers, NY. I was so proud to be working a club in my hometown. As I was walking toward the stage, I saw the owner walking around with a big laundry basket filled with socks, and I remember thinking as I reached the stage, “What’s he doing?” I was very young. They were rolled up socks, which he proceeded to hand out to everyone in the audience. When I reached the middle of my act, the owner walked to the middle of the stage and yelled, “Three, two, one, fire!”, and just started lobbing rolled up socks at me. Afterward, I asked the owner what was that, and he just said, “What? It’s Sock Friday! We throw socks at the bad comics. It’s funny!”

Heavy.com: Do you find it harder to work on your act now than when you first started?

Mitch Fatel: I find it easier to work on it now, because I know who I am writing it for. I know what subjects I want to talk about. I know where I want to approach a subject from. That being said, it is also harder now because I know as soon as I start working on a new bit it will be on the internet, it will be on a CD, etc. All of a sudden I have to write faster, but at least now I’m better at writing.

Heavy.com: Is there anything that you would like to tell your fans at Heavy?

Mitch Fatel: Be sure to check out MitchFatel.com for all my tour dates and appearances.